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National Articles

Welcome to Seniors Resource Guide: Directory Articles. We include articles to educate seniors and their families about aging issues locally and nationally. Reading informative articles is a good way to help make informed decisions about preserving quality of life. Contact information is included with each article if you want more information. New links are featured regularly and content is always welcome.

Current Articles

About Financial Assistance – Here is some Information
Financial assistance programs are most often based on need, with income and/or age a part of the qualifying for the assistance. “Financial assistance” can range from emergency shelter to food to assistance with utility bills, temporary rent assistance, disaster relief, and other emergency services meant to help a person get past a temporary financial set back.

About Food Resources - Here is some Information
Food resource programs can be based on income, age or need or be private pay food service programs. Some low cost food programs require proof of income, age and need, while others are based on a verbal request that you that you are in need of food.

About Ongoing Extreme Financial Hardship – Here is some Information
Resolving ongoing extreme financial hardship can involve consumer credit counseling, housing counseling, legal services including bankruptcy counseling and gaining an understanding of government support programs such as Medicaid and public housing. Often the starting point is a professional credit counselor.

About Senior Centers – Here is some Information
There is a movement across the United States pushing Senior Centers to become a place that older adults want to go to because they offer ongoing activities from exercise and fitness classes to creative art classes to computer classes to presentations on senior services to transportation services and more.

Care Management - When Needs Change
About: When the daily life pattern for a senior changes due to illness or the aging process, it is important to respond to those changes and a Care or Case Manager can help plan what needs to change.

Caregiver Resource - Are You Keeping Caregiving Records
About: Every caregiver should keep caregiving records on a daily basis. The Caregiver's Care Plan is very similar to the Nurse's Plan of Care and the Hospice Plan of Care. It is a daily record of the care and treatment of the care-receiver.

Caregiver Resource - PHRs and EHRs Are Not the Same Things
About: Family caregivers may find it easier to communicate caregiving issues with the new electronic systems however it is important to know the difference between Personal Health Records (PHRs) and Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

Caregiver Resource - The Time Gift
About: This article from Joy C. Davidson, owner of Joyful Transitions, LLC is about common communication patterns of older adults and exploring which set of communication skills are the most productive.

Caregiver Resource – Travel Tips for Caregivers
About: Just because you need a caregiver doesn't automatically mean you cannot travel. If your situation permits, travel can be very enjoyable. When traveling, try to follow the routine that is followed at home.

Caregiver Resource – When You Become Your Loved One
About: I am talking about that moment when you become your loved one – your mother, your aunt, your father, your sister, your friend – at least legally. When does that moment occur? It occurs when a Power-of-Attorney is signed and then enacted (perhaps at a later date).

Dying - How We Misunderstand Heroism and Heroic Action
About: The national media is beginning to fill with citizen stories about patient-families with an aged parent at highly advanced ages and with numerous infirmities that undergo increasingly invasive treatments, the sum total of which represents a non-peaceful demise.

Editorials on Senior Living - Years of Life Experience
About: Aren’t the increasing years of life experience something that is accompanied by an ever-decreasing sense of value and ever-increasing sense of uselessness? In America and some other parts of the world, yes, but not everywhere.

Elder Law - Guardianship or Conservatorship in Colorado?
About: Too often, individuals do not plan for illness, injury, or incapacity and have not executed proper medical or financial directives such as a durable medical power of attorney or a durable financial power of attorney.

Elder Law - Medical Powers of Attorney
About: Colorado - A medical power of attorney, sometimes known as a Durable Medical Power of Attorney or a Power of Attorney for Health Care, is a legal document in which you appoint an “agent” to be able to speak for you on the subject of medical treatment, in the event you are unable to speak for yourself.

Financial Assistance – Just Dial 2-1-1
About: The 2-1-1 services is a local number you dial and then can connect you to health and human resources such as food, clothing, housing, help with utility bills and more

Low Income Seniors - Low Income Rentals
About: The Federal government through the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development -HUD has a wide variety of low-income housing programs for all ages. All programs require income qualification.

Neglect of Older Adults - My Torn Heart
About: The heart is torn when we hear about older adults that are neglected – perhaps they are neglected in their own home by their caregivers or perhaps they are in a community and no one comes to visit. However, it is no less of a travesty if they are treated as if they have no value, nothing to contribute as they age because they are no longer “productive”.

Palliative Care - Palliative Care for Pets
About: Palliative care refers to the effective management of pain and the provision of comfort care, most often to ill or dying patients. Most of us are familiar with the concept of palliative care for humans, but palliative care is increasingly available for our companion animals, too.

Recycling - Insider Tips for Getting Rid of Large Items
About: Here are tips from Gone for Good on getting rid of large items such as mattresses, refrigerators and large old TV’s in the Denver area. Gone for Good encourages companies and individuals to reduce, resell and recycle.

Service Animals - Freedom Service Dogs Looks Back on 25 Years and Forward With Your Help
About: Freedom Service Dogs (FSD) was founded by Mike Roche, a paramedic who sustained injuries in an ambulance accident, putting him in a wheelchair for life. P.J. was his care provider (and later his wife), who brought her bright and curious dog to work each day. After some focused training, they were so impressed by what the dog could do to help Mike in his daily activities, they started to think about how other individuals could be helped, and FSD was born.

Social Security - Social Security Goes Country
About: Social Security’s been around nearly as long as country music — since the 1930s. Social Security was signed into law during the same depression era that found Gene Autry singing “Take Me Back To My Boots and Saddle.”

Social Security – Social Security has a Calculator on Life Expectancy. Why
About: The Social Security website offers the calculator as a tool to help those eligible for Social Security Benefits to determine when they want to retire and collect retirement benefits. However this calculator is not just about ssa retirement benefits but needs to be looked at as an overall tool in planning and managing all of your assets as you age including Social Security Benefits, additional pensions and investments.